Classical Romantic

This book recuperates the Latin poetry of Vincent Bourne by exploring the poet’s unique techniques of self-fashioning that distinguish him from his neo-Latin forebears & contemporaries. Haan is the UK’s most eminent neo-Latinist. Through close & perceptive analysis of Bourne’s negotiation of poetic identity, Haan argues in new ways for the blend of classicism & Romanticism informing his marginalized status. She capitalizes on the familiarity with other 18th-cent. English poets about whom she has previously written (Cowper, Gray, & Addison) & she makes use of contemporary literary theory without becoming dependent on any single approach or disfiguring her writing with critical jargon. The connections with English-language poets that Haan adduces will be a very considerable resource for students of vernacular poetry.